Samsung Faces Allegation That A Chinese Supplier Used Child Labor

Electronics giant Samsung is facing allegations that a supplier in China used child labor to meet the company's production targets.

Michael Conroy
/ AP

Originally published on July 11, 2014 3:14 pm

One of electronics giant Samsung's suppliers in China used child labor to meet the South Korean company's production targets, a labor watchdog said in a report Thursday.

New York-based China Labor Watch says the Shinyang Electronics factory in Dongguan, China, hired child labor and underage student workers, altering "the strictness of hiring practices in order to adapt to Samsung's demands."

"These minors will usually only work for a period of three to six months, toiling for 11 hours every day without overtime pay, and the factory does not purchase social insurance for them as required by law," the group said in a statement. "These young workers usually leave when the factory ... enters the off-season, and the factory does not need to provide any sort of severance pay."

In a statement on its website, Samsung said it was "urgently looking into the latest allegations and will take appropriate measures in accordance with our policies to prevent any cases of child labor in our suppliers."

The company's own recent report on conditions at about 100 Chinese suppliers' factories, based on an external audit, found no child labor. That report did, however, find that more than half the facilities surveyed did not provide safety equipment to workers, and most didn't comply with China's law on overtime hours.